A Geneva-based banking family is to buy Brickell Bank from its principal shareholder, Portuguese Banco Espirito Santo SA.

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Brickell Bank is poised to get new ownership six years after its parent went through a bailout that resonated in European financial markets.

Brickell Bank, housed in Miami’s Brickell Arch building at 1395 Brickell Ave., is to be purchased by the Geneva-based Benhamou banking family. Joseph Benhamou and his family own a majority stake in Geneva-based bank Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique S.A.

While a stock purchase agreement has been signed, the deal isn’t final and a purchase price won’t be disclosed until after regulatory approval.

The sale of Brickell Bank had been expected for years after its principal shareholder, Portugal-based Banco Espirito Santo S.A. was broken up in 2014.

The Portuguese bank’s holding company, Espirito Santo International, filed for bankruptcy, citing $8.4 billion in debt, and the money-losing bank was bailed out by Portugal. Banco Espirito Santo is in liquidation and was to sell its ownership of Brickell Bank, said Dindy Yokel, Brickell Bank spokeswoman.

Brickell Bank previously was named Espirito Santo Bank and rebranded itself in 2015 in part to distance itself from its past, Yokel said.

“Since Espirito Santo Bank in Miami had done nothing wrong, the best way to distance themselves was to rebrand,” she said.

The bank was a joint venture partner in grocery factoring company E.S. Bankest, which ran a $170 million fraud that inflated the value of collateral to obtain loans from Espirito Santo Bank. Federal prosecutors charged nine defendants in 2003, and ex-chairman Eduardo Orlansky received a 20-year prison sentence. Espirito Santo sued E.S. Bankest auditor BDO Seidman and reached a confidential settlement.

Think Lean Daily Message

"Look at any legal market in any town and, as we all know, there will be an array of sellers with a wide range of rates and fee arrangements. Now look where the work goes, it certainly doesn t congregate around the cheapest."

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